Topic Contents

Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) Diet for High Cholesterol

Overview

People have
varying degrees of success in lowering their
cholesterol by changing their diets. People who have
high cholesterol because they eat too many fatty foods may be able to lower
their cholesterol 10% to 20% with diet changes alone, while others may only
achieve a 5% to 8% reduction. Those who are most successful using diet changes
to lower their cholesterol are those who lose excess weight. Diet changes are
usually the first step in lowering cholesterol before medicines are
added.

The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet is recommended
by the National Cholesterol Education Program of the U.S. National Institutes
of Health. The diet's main focus is to reduce the amount of saturated fat you
eat, because saturated fat elevates your cholesterol. You can reduce the
saturated fat in your diet by limiting the amount of meat and milk products you
eat. Choose low-fat products from those food groups instead. Replace most of
the animal fat in your diet with unsaturated fat, especially monounsaturated
oils, such as olive, canola, or peanut oil. Monounsaturated fat lowers
LDL ("bad") cholesterol if it is substituted for
saturated fat and keeps
HDL ("good") cholesterol up.

The TLC diet
calls for less than 7% of your daily calories to come from saturated fat and
for eating no more than 200 mg of dietary cholesterol a day. But the diet
allows 25% to 35% of daily calories from fat, mainly from unsaturated
fat.1 Most of the fat should be monounsaturated, and
only 10% should be polyunsaturated fat. Your diet should include only enough
calories to maintain your desired weight and avoid gaining weight.

related physicians

related services

This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use.
Privacy Policy.
How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.